Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Newly Deciphered Dead Sea Scroll Reveals 364-Day Calendar
Biblical Archaeology Review ^ | Robin Ngo | February 2, 2018

Posted on 02/12/2018 8:31:55 PM PST by SunkenCiv

Of the estimated 900 documents that comprise the Dead Sea Scrolls, two remain unpublished -- until now. Scholars Eshbal Ratson and Jonathan Ben-Dov of the Department of Bible Studies at the University of Haifa recently published one of the last two... the scholars diligently pieced together 62 Dead Sea Scroll fragments, on which there was writing in code. Ratson and Ben-Dov deciphered the code on the reconstructed scroll, called Scroll 4Q324d, and revealed that the scroll describes a 364-day calendar used by the Qumran community that lived in the Judean Desert. This Qumran calendar gives us insight into how the community organized the seasons and religious festivals, and it sheds light on scribal customs...

Scroll 4Q324d describes two festivals that aren't in the Hebrew Bible, but are known from the Dead Sea Scroll known as the Temple Scroll: the festivals of New Wine and New Oil, which follow the festival of Shavuot celebrating the New Wheat. In addition, we learn from this scroll the name of the special day the Qumran community inserted between seasons to celebrate the transition: the name is Tekufah, which today means "period" in Hebrew.

The Qumran scribes used various codes in writing the Dead Sea Scrolls, but the main code they used, which was employed in Scroll 4Q324d, was Cryptic A (named by its decipherer, Biblical scholar J.T. Milik).

"Cryptic A is a simple replacement code, with each letter represented by a designated sign," explain Ratson and Ben-Dov in their Journal of Biblical Literature article. "Some of these signs correspond to paleo-Hebrew or Greek letters, while others seem arbitrary. These signs played a part in the sectarian scribal practice, as some of them appear as scribal marks in various scrolls."

(Excerpt) Read more at biblicalarchaeology.org ...


TOPICS: History; Science; Travel
KEYWORDS: deadseascrolls; epigraphyandlanguage; godsgravesglyphs; israel
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-34 next last
A portion of the recently deciphered Dead Sea Scroll 4Q324d containing a 364-day calendar used by the Qumran community in the Judean Desert. Photo: Courtesy of the University of Haifa.

University of Haifa

1 posted on 02/12/2018 8:31:55 PM PST by SunkenCiv
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: StayAt HomeMother; Ernest_at_the_Beach; 1ofmanyfree; 21twelve; 24Karet; 2ndDivisionVet; 31R1O; ...

2 posted on 02/12/2018 8:32:33 PM PST by SunkenCiv (www.tapatalk.com/groups/godsgravesglyphs/, forum.darwincentral.org, www.gopbriefingroom.com)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: SunkenCiv

I hear HilLIARy used Cryptic -A code in her communiques with the Kremlin


3 posted on 02/12/2018 8:38:31 PM PST by faithhopecharity ("Politicans aren't born, they're excreted." -Marcus Tillius Cicero (3 BCE))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SunkenCiv

Obvious conclusion - the earth circled the sun more quickly back then - the orbit is slowing down.


4 posted on 02/12/2018 8:41:27 PM PST by PAR35
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: PAR35

“Obvious conclusion - the earth circled the sun more quickly back then - the orbit is slowing down.”

Talk about a tough statement prove false!

That’s a good one. The only way to accurately measure would be to launch a satellite that is stationary and time orbits year by year. Except, gravity would cause the satellite to start moving AND the solar system is also revolving around the center of the galaxy so to have a fixed reference you’d need a powered vehicle that could main a relative position in a moving solar system for decades or centuries.

There might be another way to achieve the same measurement but it would have a great deal more uncertainty.


5 posted on 02/12/2018 8:54:34 PM PST by Fai Mao (I still want to see The PIAPS in prison)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: PAR35

Or, the Earth spun more slowly on its axis.

I’m not going to turn this into a Catastrophism ping list topic though. :^)


6 posted on 02/12/2018 9:02:28 PM PST by SunkenCiv (www.tapatalk.com/groups/godsgravesglyphs/, forum.darwincentral.org, www.gopbriefingroom.com)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: faithhopecharity

RESET is Hillary cryptic code for I will give you all the Uranium.


7 posted on 02/12/2018 9:03:22 PM PST by freefdny
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: SunkenCiv

Bookmark


8 posted on 02/12/2018 9:05:59 PM PST by Cats Pajamas (#releasethememo)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: faithhopecharity
Uranium One FBI Informant Is Revealed: Will Testify, Provide Evidence

9 posted on 02/12/2018 9:06:17 PM PST by SunkenCiv (www.tapatalk.com/groups/godsgravesglyphs/, forum.darwincentral.org, www.gopbriefingroom.com)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: SunkenCiv
Scroll 4Q324d describes two festivals that aren't in the Hebrew Bible, but are known from the Dead Sea Scroll known as the Temple Scroll: the festivals of New Wine and New Oil, which follow the festival of Shavuot celebrating the New Wheat.

That's certainly interesting

Revelation 6:5-6 And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand. 6 And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine.

10 posted on 02/12/2018 9:07:26 PM PST by Ezekiel (All who mourn(ed!) the destruction of America merit the celebration of her rebirth.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SunkenCiv

If the Qumran community had survived to the present, they would have gained 6 years on the Roman calendar...so they would have celebrated Passover, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and Hanukkah six extra times.


11 posted on 02/12/2018 9:07:57 PM PST by Verginius Rufus
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: SunkenCiv

Interesting. Which month was designated as Black history month?


12 posted on 02/12/2018 9:15:28 PM PST by Huskrrrr
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SunkenCiv

Wouldn’t that mean that the Biblical festivals would have been eventually celebrated outside of their typical seasons?


13 posted on 02/12/2018 9:23:58 PM PST by jjotto ("Ya could look it up!")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SunkenCiv

Sure, before global warming it was too cold to have 365 days.
(Close enough for government work)


14 posted on 02/12/2018 9:27:41 PM PST by mrsmith (Dumb sluts: Lifeblood of the Media, Backbone of the Democrat/RINO Party!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: jjotto
Hey, they were ascetic, celibate unshaved weirdos living in an old whorehouse hundreds of feet below sealevel, in a desert, not astronomers.

15 posted on 02/12/2018 9:36:38 PM PST by SunkenCiv (www.tapatalk.com/groups/godsgravesglyphs/, forum.darwincentral.org, www.gopbriefingroom.com)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: mrsmith

;^)


16 posted on 02/12/2018 9:37:17 PM PST by SunkenCiv (www.tapatalk.com/groups/godsgravesglyphs/, forum.darwincentral.org, www.gopbriefingroom.com)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: PAR35; SunkenCiv
Scholars believe that the Qumran calendar (following the same calendar described in the Book of Enoch) was using 52 seven-day weeks because that was easier to compute in whole numbers, and they added a week every seven years and two weeks every four Sabbatical years (28-year cycles) to periodically synch the calendar with the solar calendar.
17 posted on 02/12/2018 9:38:37 PM PST by Fedora
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: Huskrrrr

Not sure, better ask the ancient Egyptians, they were black African. /sarc


18 posted on 02/12/2018 9:38:39 PM PST by SunkenCiv (www.tapatalk.com/groups/godsgravesglyphs/, forum.darwincentral.org, www.gopbriefingroom.com)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: Fedora

Yeah, it appears to have been a movement away from the 354 day lunar year toward the 365.242198 day solar year. The lunar year won out.

http://www.jewfaq.org/calendar.htm


19 posted on 02/12/2018 9:41:07 PM PST by SunkenCiv (www.tapatalk.com/groups/godsgravesglyphs/, forum.darwincentral.org, www.gopbriefingroom.com)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]

The Sidereal and Synodic Months
http://www.sumanasinc.com/webcontent/animations/content/sidereal.html


20 posted on 02/12/2018 9:43:19 PM PST by SunkenCiv (www.tapatalk.com/groups/godsgravesglyphs/, forum.darwincentral.org, www.gopbriefingroom.com)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 19 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-34 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson